History of the Cadets
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College had its origin in certain grants of land made by the United States government in 1806, 1811, and 1827 for use as a seminary of learning. In 1853, the Louisiana General Assembly established the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy near Pineville, Louisiana. The institution opened January 2, 1860, with Col. William Tecumseh Sherman as superintendent. The school closed June 30, 1861, because of the Civil War. It reopened on April 1, but was again closed on April 23, 1863, due to the invasion of the Red River Valley by the federal army. The losses sustained by the institution during the war were heavy.
The Seminary reopened October 2, 1865, only to be burned October 15, 1869. On November 1, 1869, the institution resumed its exercises in Baton Rouge, where it has since remained. In 1870, the name of the institution was changed to Louisiana State University. Older alumni remember it fondly as the “Ole War Skule,” and their recollections are filled with accounts of initiation rituals, drilling on the parade ground and barracks life, which prepared and inspired young men for military life. LSU and Texas A&M continue to debate which institution, after the military academies, can claim the distinction having contributed the most officers to WW II.
This military tradition continued to be central to the lives of LSU men until 1968 when the ROTC program requiring all undergraduate males to take two years of military training was repealed and ROTC at LSU became voluntary. When the University was formerly dedicated on the present campus on April 30, 1926, the cadets moved to the new campus. But they brought the traditions of the “Ole War Skule” with them, including the name–which has continued to remind and inspire all who have come after them.
In 1955, a group of those cadets who had begun their LSU experience on the old campus, officially organized the “Cadets of the Ole War Skule” as a way of ensuring that future generations of LSU Cadets and other alumni might never forget the rich military heritage and traditions of LSU. Their annual meetings on Homecoming Day each year also afforded them the opportunity to officially encourage and support participation in the LSU Corps of Cadets. Many of those members were not only former cadets, but they were also current members of the University’s faculty and staff.
Through the years, the membership of the Cadets of the Ole War Skule began to decline because there were less and less living members of the original number of cadets from the old campus. Eventually, the group ceased to hold their annual meetings and were rarely mentioned in most University circles. But that is certainly not the end of the story. In 1995, at the encouragement of then Chancellor William E. “Bud” Davis, the University endorsed a reorganization effort designed to breathe new life into this once thriving and influential organization of former cadets and guarantee its continued existence as an integral part of the LSU's valued traditions. At the same time, LSU Salutes was created as a program to officially recognize all former cadets and other veterans who had served and/or who had given their lives in service to the United States of America. In March of 1998, the LSU Board of Supervisors designated LSU Salutes an official University event, guaranteeing its place as one of LSU’s many significant traditions.
The Cadets of the Ole War Skule, in accordance with its By-laws, continues to recognize and support the unique contributions of those who have served their country in uniform and to promote and cultivate the bonds of interest and fellowship existing among alumni and students of LSU who have served, or are serving, the United States of America honorably in any one of the uniformed services, National Guard or military reserve components of the nation. The Cadets of the Ole War Skule is a service and fraternal organization which strives to preserve and strengthen a spirit of camaraderie among its members, to foster and perpetuate patriotism and to strengthen a sense of individual allegiance to LSU.
